Official: Attack on western Iraq gas field kills 2

BAGHDAD (AP) — A provincial official says gunmen attacked workers at a remote gas field near the Syria border, killing two men and kidnapping one.

Farhan Farhan, the mayor of the western city of Qaim, said on Tuesday that the gunmen also set fire to workers’ trailers at a camp near the gas field. The kidnapped man is the brother of the Iraqi company owner building the camp site.

Farhan says the attack took place on Monday. He says the Iraqi company was contracted by South Korea’s KOGAS to build the trailer camp before developing the gas field.

Qaim is about 320 kilometers (200 miles) west of Baghdad.

Iraqi officials are concerned that al-Qaida militants are strengthening around the porous Iraq-Syria border, taking advantage of Syria’s turmoil.